In the preparation of adhesive graphics, simply decorative or also having a protective function, obtained through various printing or through simple engraving processes, a distribution of single graphics is obtained on a single sheet comprising films of the type indicated above, printed and/or cut, coupled with a supporting silicone release paper, or liner. A cutting machine thus has the function of cutting the fringes of the various programmed drawings or writings only on the film, without however cutting also the support/release paper. At this stage there is the need of removing the “weeds”, that is, the parts of adhesive film which are not processed and are therefore outside the graphics. In fact, the subsequent user, for his production requirements, needs to have a sheet in which there are only the graphics on the support paper, so that the same graphics can be easily removed and applied as desired.
Such a removal operation of the superfluous film, on the whole also called “weed” for the sake of simplicity, is in fact called weeding. This is a very onerous operation and at the same time delicate since, especially when the contours of the graphics have irregular shapes, or in any case they have indentations or acute curves or undercuts (situation which occurs even with simple alphanumerical characters), the film of weed to be removed tends to tear, leaving residues, or to pull away also the graphical part that should instead be left unaltered. There are also often small parts, typically the internal hollows of characters and writings in general, which require operations that are accurate, precise and repeated.
Such an operation is currently carried out in a completely manual manner, with serious affection of the production time and on labor costs. Automation of the weeding process, despite the attempts made, has been found to be problematic, indeed for the difficulties mentioned above, furthermore enhanced by the fact that the different graphics to be treated and their distribution demand requirements that are always different.